Chapter 1100 — The Dim Court and the Mirror Cavern

Still no answer came from the darkness, and no light kindled—only a few faint, drawn-out breaths, as though muffled by heavy curtains and far removed from this world, rose on every side. A thread of tension ran through those breaths, yet no one's voice sounded panicked—and so another ten seconds or so passed, until at last a faint glimmer surfaced in the cavern.

The first mage-guard lit his staff; then the rest released the state of "dark silence," staff after staff kindled, and the faint lights throughout the cavern returned. Prince Nash's figure re-emerged in their glow. At once he looked toward the guards, counting heads among those somewhat pallid faces.

"One is missing," he said suddenly, his voice low.

The guards at once began confirming among themselves, and after a brief internal count all eyes fixed on a gap at the front of the group—an empty place where a man had plainly been standing, though the guard who belonged to it was gone.

The black-robed mages watched that empty spot tensely, and then, all at once, a tiny glimmer of light burst forth from the vacant place. It floated at about the height of a man, flickering bright and dim, now and then revealing the hazy outline of a figure in midair—as though an invisible mage stood there, striving in the "darkness" that was his alone to light his staff, striving to cast his own form back into the real world. He tried again and again, but the glimmer grew fainter and fainter, and the outline of the figure it sometimes illumined grew blurrier and thinner.

Among the black-robed mages someone could not help murmuring softly, "Come back... come back to this world... hurry back... do not give up, come back..."

That last glimmer finally vanished, and never kindled again.

Among the guards someone could not help cursing under his breath, muttering indistinctly.

"He has departed," said Prince Nash, his gaze resting long on the place where the glimmer had last died. Only after several seconds of silence did he speak in a low voice. "May this worthy guard find peace on the other side of the darkness."

The guards bowed their heads and said together, with solemnity and sorrow, "May he find peace on the other side of the darkness..."

"Notify his family as soon as possible; send them the spare uniform and staff he used in life... there must be something for the burial," Prince Nash said softly. "His family will receive a generous pension; all will be cared for."

The captain of the guards bowed. "Yes, my lord."

Nash Nal't nodded, his gaze returning to the "mirror" at the cavern's center. That terrible black mirror had fallen wholly calm, as though all the strange phenomena just now had been a dream shared by everyone—Prince Nash could even be certain that were he to step directly onto the mirror's surface this moment and walk about upon it at will, nothing at all would happen.

"The agitation is over," this "king of mages" sighed softly, "but I fear this barrier is no longer so firm."

"Such a change must be connected to recent events," the captain of the guards could not help saying. "Gods have fallen or vanished one after another; Tarronde, stagnant for a million years, has suddenly broken free of its shackles; the mortal nations are in unprecedented upheaval; every mind has lost its former order and steadiness. Restless and turbulent currents of thought stir ripples in the deep sea—and these ripples are greater than any before; they will surely reach across the whole deep sea... and will inevitably disturb the sleeper's dreams as well."

As he spoke, the captain turned his head and looked at the vast black mirror with eyes full of tension and vigilance.

"We should do something to preserve His slumbering state," another mage-guard could not help saying.

Prince Nash Nal't looked quietly at the black-robed mage who had spoken, and asked softly in return, "Why?"

"That..." The mage-guard was taken aback, and answered somewhat blankly, "We are the guardians of this dream..."

"We are merely guarding this entrance, ensuring that the evolution unfolds naturally. Whether this dream will continue, whether it will wake early, under what circumstances it will change... none of this is ours to interfere with. And as for changes concerning the whole world, the whole age... that is even less ours to meddle in," Prince Nash said calmly. "All of this is the natural course of history. Violet is merely its bystander."

At this he shook his head slightly.

"Do not underestimate the force of this historical progression, and do not let an overinflated sense of mission blind your eyes. We are nothing but a band of gatekeepers."

Nash Nal't turned into a wisp of smoke, passing once more through the layered storeys, through defenses of unknowable depth, until he returned to the chamber in the tower's upper levels. Bright lamplight entered his field of view, driving off the black shadows clinging to this king of mages—and those shadows evaporated in the light, dissolving with a faint hiss.

Nash came to a dark crimson high-backed chair and sat there in quiet thought. How long that stillness lasted he could not say, until a light footstep suddenly sounded behind him.

On the wall not far behind him, the surface of an oval magic mirror — taller than a man, framed in ornate pale gold — suddenly bloomed with light, and within the glass a woman of extraordinary beauty, dressed in a white court gown, quietly took shape. She looked at Prince Nash: "You are in low spirits. The guards have suffered a loss?"

"A very experienced guard was lost at the Boundary," Nash shook his head and said with a sigh. "He left nothing behind."

"How could such a thing happen?" The woman in the mirror looked astonished. "How could an experienced guard be lost at the Boundary?"

"...The mirror surface briefly lost control, and the Boundary grew blurred. That guard withstood every lure and deception, and in the darkness he held back the urge to light his staff — yet once the Boundary was restored he did not return to the light in time, and so failed to make it back to our world."

The woman in the mirror fell silent, and two seconds later sighed softly: "What a pity."

"...May he find peace on the other side of the darkness," said Prince Nash Pingxi.

"We all know there is nothing on the other side of the darkness — only an utterly empty dream."

"Then that is the utmost peace."

(End of Chapter)